The Vanishing World
by Scoobyfan1
Summary: This is the story of Scooby Doo and the rest of Mystery Inc. as well as Josie and the Pussycats, Speed Buggy and company and the Clue Club all working together to solve one of the most baffling mysteries of their respective careers. Fraphne and Shelma pairings, plus for Josie fans, Josie/Alan, as well as a few other miscellaneous romantic pairings and hints of pairings.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: Scooby Doo, Clue Club, Speed Buggy and Josie and the Pussycats and all characters and trademarks from their respective shows are copyright Hanna-Barbera Productions & Warner Brothers. The Josie and the Pussycats comic book on which the cartoon version of the show is based is copyright Archie Comics, the live-action movie version of Josie and the Pussycats is copyright Universal & MGM. For this story I am using the cartoon versions of the Josie and the Pussycats characters and not the Archie Comics comic book versions. I am not making any money writing this, I am only a fan. I got the idea for this story from the Stephen King novels/television mini-series _The Stand_ & _The Langoilers_ as well as partially from the 1983 television movie _The Day After_.

Chapter 1

It is a bright sunny summer day in Middle America as the familiar brightly colored red and green van known as The Mystery Machine travels along the highway in Eastern Kansas; inside of which are the famous teenage sleuths of Mystery Inc. Fred Jones, Velma Dinkley, Daphne Blake, Shaggy Rogers and their Great Dane Scooby Doo, after solving a mystery in Missouri the four adolescent investigators and their canine companion continue on their way across the Great Plains region and at the moment are discussing their most recent adventure.

"You know I was beginning to think we were never going to solve that mystery" Fred commented.

"Yeah, that sure was a tough case, plus that Mr. Craven was sure a smart crook" Daphne replied.

"I'll have to admit, using that Phantom disguise so he could hide his counterfeiting scheme was sure clever" Velma remarked.

"Like yeah plus he sure gave Scoob and me a fright" Shaggy said.

"Reah" Scooby replied.

"But thankfully we were able to stop him before he got away with it" Fred remarked.

Meanwhile another familiar vehicle is heading north, it is the internationally renowned orange fiberglass Dune Buggy known as Speed Buggy, inside of which sits it's equally famous passengers: Mark, Debbie and Tinker.

"Golly, that Oklahoma 500 race sure was a tough one, right Speedy?" Tinker asked.

"Yeah, a tough one" Speed Buggy replied.

"It may have been tough but you two did a great job and deserved to win it" Mark said.

"Yeah, Speedy you're the best car in the world" Debbie commented.

"Thanks Debbie" Speed Buggy replied blushing a little bit.

Coming from the West another familiar vehicle can be seen; it is the Clue Car which is the official mode of transportation for the group of mystery solvers collectively known as the Clue Club, in which sits two bloodhounds named Woofer and Wimper, three teenage sleuths named Larry, Pepper and D.D., and a younger girl with red hair and pigtails named Dottie.

"I sure am glad to be headed back home," D.D. said.

"Yeah, I sure enjoyed skiing in Colorado but it'll sure be great to get back" Larry replied.

"I am sure glad you took me with you guys" Dottie remarked.

"No problem sis, we're always glad to take you on vacations" Pepper replied.

"The skiing was sure nice but it sure was cold" Wimper said still shivering a bit from the memory of the snow capped Rocky Mountains.

"Oh it didn't bother me, I'm warm-blooded" Woofer replied in a matter of fact style fashion.

"Yeah sure" Whimper replied, not believing his companion.

"Why sure I am you know Whimper sometimes I think you don't have faith in me" Woofer said.

"Of course I do" Whimper replied.

Traveling East and heading in the opposite direction is a large red bus belonging to the famous singing group Josie and the Pussycats, Josie and her friends are currently in route to the state of Missouri for some concert dates in Kansas City and St. Louis.

"Well dear brother you've done it again" Alexandra said.

"What did I do this time?" Alexander asked.

"Wanting to drive cross-country for our gigs is probably the dumbest thing you've ever though of" Alexandra commented.

"Don't worry about it Alex, I kind of like traveling across country; it reminds me of the old rock bands of the sixties" Alan said.

"Yeah, this is really fun" Josie replied.

"I'm really enjoying all the sights" Melody commented.

"Sure, they say traveling the highways and byways is pretty enjoyable" Valerie replied.

"Actually when you get right down to it, I guess it's not too bad" Alexandra commented, relenting a bit to her brother's decision.

"Thanks sis" Alexander replied.

"Just don't make a big deal of it, it's not often that I compliment you and it may not happen again for a long time" Alexandra commented.

"Hey I'll take whatever I can get sis" Alexander replied.

The four vehicles then continued their respective treks down the interstate towards their respective destinations; after driving for about twenty minutes each of the four vehicles found themselves approaching a large cloverleaf in the middle of the highway; after each of the four vehicles drivers' noticed the cloverleaf, with no other options and possibly no way out of it, each of the drivers hits the brakes on their respective vehicles.

Fred, Tinker, Alexander and Larry then each looked out through the front windshields of their respective vehicles inside the cloverleaf and each notices that they have a decision to make: drive through the cloverleaf in circles, or stop each of their vehicles and figure out what to do next.

Seeing that there are little to no other vehicles on the highway, each driver decides to stop their respective automobiles and decides to confer with the occupants of their respective modes of transportation; after each group finished discussing what their next move should be, each one of the four drivers looked over at the other automobiles.

However when Fred, Alan, Tinker and Larry noticed who was driving each of the other vehicles the four adolescent drivers smiled ear to ear as each person noticed some familiar faces sitting in each automobile.

After seeing who the passengers in each of the other vehicles were, the four drivers each returned to their respective modes of transportation, turned them on and moved each of them to the side of the highway.

Finally after each vehicle had been moved, Mystery Inc., Josie and the Pussycats, the Clue Club and Speed Buggy and company each exited their parked vehicles and began to greet one another.

"Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, Velma; boy is it great to see all of you!" Larry exclaimed happily.

"Likewise" Fred replied.

"Yeah we haven't seen you five in a long time" Mark said.

"No kidding, we're sure happy to see some familiar faces" Alan commented.

"It's sure been a long time hasn't it?" Josie asked.

"Yeah, it has and we sure are glad to see all of you again" Daphne replied.

"So like where are you guys headed Tinker?" Shaggy asked.

"We're heading back from a race in Oklahoma" Tinker replied.

"Terrific, did you guys win?" Velma asked.

"Yep, sure did" Tinker replied.

"What about all of you Valerie?" Velma asked.

"We're headed for some concert dates in Kansas City and St. Louis Missouri" Valerie replied.

"That sounds like fun, what about you guys Pepper?" Daphne asked.

"We're heading home from a skiing vacation in Colorado" Pepper replied.

"That sounds pretty fun," Shaggy said.

"What about you five?" Larry asked.

"Yeah what have you guys been up to lately?" Alan asked.

"I bet you guys have solved a lot of mysteries" Mark asked.

"We sure have, and we're getting back from solving one in Missouri" Fred replied.

"Boy, it sounds like we've all been pretty busy lately" Mark replied.

"Well now that we're all here what should we do?" Alexander asked.

"I've got an idea, since it looks like we're all not sure where we're headed, why don't all four of our teams join up for a while" Fred replied.

"Groovy idea Fred" Mark replied.

"Yeah that sounds like a lot of fun," Larry said.

"Why not, Josie, Valerie and Melody have a concert but we can change the date if we have to" Alan replied.

"What about the customers who bought tickets to the show?" Alexandra asked.

"Don't worry about it sis, it's not such a big deal; after all how often do we get to see old friends," Alexander said.

"OK, then it's all settled: the five of us, Josie and her pals, Speed Buggy and his friends, and the Clue Club will all team up for a while" Fred said.

Each of the mystery solving groups agreed to Fred's idea; but there was still one problem: where would the four sleuthing teams go?

The four respective groups of teen sleuths then got out a map from each of their respective vehicles to figure out which direction that they should head in.

"According to the map we're somewhere outside of Lawrence, Kansas" Velma said.

"Our map looks that way too" Mark replied.

"So does ours" D.D said.

"And ours" Alan said.

"OK, so now we know where exactly we're we are" Fred said.

"And according to all our maps we should probably head West towards Topeka" Larry replied.

"That sounds good, but we've still got to figure a way out of the cloverleaf," Debbie added.

"Hang on a second, I think I see a way out of this" Valerie replied.

Each of the teens walked over to where Valerie was standing and looked over her shoulder at the map.

"If we go this way, through here we should get out of the clover leaf with no problems" Valerie said.

"Good thinking Val, everybody back into the vehicles and let's head out of this clover leaf," Alan said.

"Right" said everyone in unison.

Each of the Mystery-solving teams entered their respective vehicles and headed west towards Lawrence, Kansas; the four vehicles drove through Lawrence with no problems, however as the respective vehicles left the home of the University of Kansas something very strange started to happen; a thick fog began to develop as the vehicles left the city, at first the four groups of teenage sleuths shrugged it off as nothing however it became thicker and thicker and began to enshroud the four groups as they drove along Interstate 40 on the way to Topeka; after about five miles the fog had become so thick and dense that it forced each of the vehicle's drivers to turn on their respective headlights.

"Boy this fog is as thick as pea soup," Fred said.

"Pea soup nothing, this fog is as thick as ham" Daphne replied.

The vehicles continued to drive along the Interstate finally arriving in the city of Topeka, Kansas; however the strange happenings that had started with the thick fog became more and more apparent as the gang entered the city's outskirts.

"Hmm, does anyone notice anything weird around here?" Debbie asked.

"Yeah there are no other cars besides our four vehicles" Mark replied.

"And I don't see any people either" Tinker said.

"Yeah, it's creepy" Speed Buggy remarked.

The four vehicles then made their way into the city center of Topeka; meanwhile the four groups of crime solving teams were still thoroughly confused by what was going on.

"This is really weird, there's no cars, no people and who knows what else is going on around here," said Larry.

"Yeah it's like a ghost town around here" D.D. replied.

"I wish you wouldn't say that D.D." Pepper said.

"I wish he wouldn't say that either" Wimper commented.

"What are you Wimper a dog or a mouse?" Woofer asked.

"Squeak, Squeak" Wimper replied.

"Cut that out Wimper" Woofer said somewhat impatiently.

As the four groups of adolescent investigators continued to make their way through Topeka's Main Street they each saw noticed that no one was coming out of or going into or even inside any buildings, no one was driving any cars or other vehicles, and most importantly no one was on the streets, not even tourists or passersby.

"I'm getting a really creepy feeling all of a sudden," Alexander said.

"What's the matter oh chicken brother of mine" Alexandra replied.

"It's just I'm really scared by all of this" Alexander commented.

"I tend to agree with Alexander, something really creepy is going on" Alan said.

"Yeah, this is really strange" Josie replied.

"There has to be some kind of logical explanation as to why there are no people. There's no other cars besides the four vehicles belonging to us, Scooby and friends, Speed Buggy and the Clue Club; besides a city the size of Topeka I would think would have at least some people here" Valerie said.

"Maybe somebody left a giant fog machine on" Melody commented giggling.

"Very funny Melody" Valerie replied.

"Thank You" Melody replied giggling.

The four vehicles belonging to the various crime solving groups then found their way into Downtown Topeka, with no other options and not knowing just what was happening to them, they decided to park each vehicle and investigate the city as well as the peculiar events that had somehow caused every person and every vehicle in the city to disappear.

Mystery Inc., the Clue Club, Speed Buggy and company as well as Josie and the Pussycats each exited their respective vehicles and walked over to a small grassy area to discuss their plans and how to proceed with their investigation.

"Well Fred now that we're here, what should we do?" Alan asked.

"Hmm, there certainly is a lot of ground to cover around here; maybe we should split up, with all four of our separate groups we should be able to investigate the entire city several times over" Fred explained.

"Good thinking Fred, although" Velma remarked.

"Although what Velma?" Valerie wondered.

"There's something I want to do before we start investigating, it's kind of an experiment really; to be honest I really don't know if it will work" the bespectacled teen sleuth replied.

"What is it Velma?" Fred asked.

"First I want to ask if anyone is wearing a watch or timepiece" the bespectacled teen sleuth answered back.

"I think I might be wearing one Velma" Fred remarked.

"I'm also wearing one" Alan commented.

"I'm wearing one as well" Larry remarked.

"I'm wearing a watch also" Mark commented.

"Good, now what I want the four of you to do is look at your watches and tell me what time it is" Velma explained.

"Huh? Why would you want to know what time it is Velma?" Fred wondered.

"Trust me, it will help me figure out what's going on here" the bespectacled girl replied.

"In that case, according to my watch it's…" Fred commented, as he looked at the timepiece on his wrist, however he stopped for a second before sharing with the rest of the teenage sleuths what time it was.

"What's the matter Fred?" Daphne wondered.

"Something really weird to say the least, my watch says it's 3:30 PM, but the dial hasn't changed from that time, it's stuck" the blond teen replied.

"That's weird, my watch also stopped" Alan chimed in.

"Yeah mine too" Larry replied.

"Mine's stopped also" Mark added.

"Hmm… just as I figured, now I want to try the other part of the experiment; one person in each group take the keys for each of the vehicles and start them up, after each vehicle is turned on look to see if the radio or any electronic equipment in each of the vehicles works" Velma explained.

"Can do Velma, I'll check the Mystery Machine" Fred replied.

"I'll check our tour bus" Alexander explained.

"I'll go check the Clue Car" Larry commented.

"And I'll start up Speed Buggy" Tinker explained.

With that Fred headed for the Mystery Machine, Alexander walked over to Josie and her group's tour bus, Larry walked over to the Clue Car and Tinker headed over to Speed Buggy; each of the four opened up their respective vehicles and started up their respective engines.

After the four drivers headed over to their respective vehicles, the rest of each of the four mystery solving groups walked over to watch their friends and see if Velma's experiment would bear fruit; first Fred checked the radio and electronic equipment in the Mystery Machine.

"Hmm… that's strange, I've check all through the radio in the van as well as the GPS and every other piece of electronic equipment in the van and everything either doesn't work or I can't pick up anything" the blond teen commented.

"That's very interesting, Alexander go ahead and try your vehicle" Velma explained.

Next Alexander checked everything in Josie and company's tour bus, only to discover the same thing that happened to the Mystery Machine was happening to the tour bus.

"Yikes! The radio and all our equipment is dead too" he exclaimed.

"Hmm… looks two for two, Larry go ahead and check out the Clue Car now" Velma said.

The leader of the Clue Club then did as Fred and Alexander had previously done, only to find that the Clue Car was suffering from a case of déjà vu.

"Hey this is getting serious, our radio, scanner and everything else in the car except the engine is dead" Larry explained.

"Uh oh, three for three, Tinker go ahead and check on Speed Buggy, although I think I have an idea what will happen" Velma said.

With that the driver of the famous race car checked the dune buggy's radio and equipment but as with the other vehicles, he found that Speed Buggy was suffering from the same ailment as the first three automobiles.

"Golly, I can't get any radio stations or work any of the radar equipment in Speed Buggy at all" Tinker commented.

"Jinkies! Then it looks like all my fears are confirmed, you guys can exit each of the vehicles now, I think I have a pretty good idea as to what's going on here" Velma explained.

After the bespectacled girl finished speaking, Fred, Alexandra, Larry and Tinker turned off their respective vehicles and walked back over to rejoin each of their respective mystery solving groups.

"So Velma did your experiment turn out the way you were hoping?" Valerie asked.

"Unfortunately, yes; according to my calculations and the results of the experiment that just took place, I have come to a horrible conclusion" the bespectacled girl replied.

"Like what's that Velma? Although on second thought I don't think I want to know" Shaggy responded, cowering a bit as he walked over to Velma and stood behind her.

"My conclusion is this: somehow and for some reason, not only are all our watches frozen but all our electronic equipment is useless or dead; in other words, when we drove into that fog earlier we must have somehow, someway passed through a portal" the bespectacled girl explained.

"A portal? What kind of portal Velma?" Valerie asked.

"You guys are never going to believe this but there's just no other explanation, I think we passed through a portal to some kind of parallel universe" the bespectacled girl replied.

Velma's statement sent shockwaves through the members of Mystery Inc, including herself as well as through the members of Speed Buggy's crew, as well as the members of Josie and the Pussycats and the Clue Club; in addition to that each of the teenage sleuths, the three canines and the one talking dune buggy of the group felt a sudden chill go up each and every one of their spines in addition to having a serious case of goose bumps not to mention the absolute shivers.

Author's Notes: I decided to end this chapter with somewhat of a cliff hanger, this is the largest fan fiction project I've undertaken so far in terms of number of characters involved so this may be a bit tricky for me but I've become a decent writer so I believe I'm up to it.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The four groups of teenage mystery solvers, which included the members of Mystery Inc., Josie and the Pussycats, Speed Buggy and crew, as well as the Clue Club, stood in a grassy area in downtown Topeka, Kansas still trying to comprehend what their bespectacled comrade had told them.

"A parallel universe? Velma, as intelligent a person as you are and knowing that you're an expert in science, you actually believe in parallel universes and things like that?" Valerie asked somewhat surprised and shocked at her colleague's comment.

"Sure, as the old saying goes: once you have eliminated the impossible, all that remains is the truth" Velma replied.

"That's an interesting saying Velma, who said that?" Valerie asked.

"Sherlock Holmes I believe" Velma replied.

"Interesting, so now that we're in this parallel universe just what are we going to do?" Valerie asked.

"Well normally I would say we should split up and look for clues, but in this case I really don't know if that would be a good idea" Fred explained.

"Why Fred?" Mark wondered.

"Because we don't know what's in this universe and we have no idea what's in store for us here; however, although if we're ever going to uncover what's really going on here maybe it would be a good idea to look for clues and do a little investigating around this city" Fred replied.

"I guess that would be a good idea, although we should do one thing before we start" Larry commented.

"What's that?" Fred wondered.

"We have a box full of wrist communicators that Dottie made a while back and I think it would be a good idea if each of you had one, just in case we need to contact each other" Larry explained.

"But Larry if our electronic equipment's all dead and all our watches have stopped and are frozen then why would our wrist communicators' work?" Tinker asked.

"Very simple Tinker, you see the wrist communicators and the equipment in our cars both operate on vastly different frequencies, which means while the GPS systems, radar and other electronics don't work, the communicators should work fine" Dottie explained.

"I certainly hope so, this place is like a hundred ghost towns all rolled into one" Tinker replied.

"Yeah a ghost town" Speed Buggy commented with some cowardice in his voice.

"Don't tell me you're afraid of ghosts Speedy? A brave car like you shouldn't be afraid of anything much less ghosts" Debbie remarked.

"Yeah Speed Buggy, besides there are no such things as ghosts" Velma explained.

"I just hope we don't run into anything scary" Speed Buggy replied.

"Don't worry everybody, as long as we keep in touch via Dottie's wrist communicators we'll have no problems; now, let's start doing some exploring around town and see if we can find out an explanation as to just what's going on around here" Larry remarked.

"Right and I think I have an idea as to how we should go about searching this city and looking for clues" Fred noted.

"What's that Fred?" Alan asked.

"Well for starters; this city's so big that we'll probably have to each our own separate ways; which also means we'll have to split up into four separate groups" Fred replied.

"Good thinking Fred; if each of the four groups searches a different portion of the city then we should be able to have no problem finding anything weird or out of the ordinary" Mark noted.

"That's all well and good except for one thing" Alexander said.

"What's that chicken brother?" Alexandra asked.

"Ha, ha, ha, very funny sis; like Fred said this city's so large, how are we going to search it in four groups, like for starters what are we going to do for transportation? I mean we can't just walk around the whole city, or can we?" Alexander explained.

"Don't worry Alexander, I wasn't planning on having us walk all over the city; even though the electronic equipment and radios in all our vehicles are dead, the vehicles themselves still work, which means each of our four groups can drive throughout the city" Fred replied.

"I get it and then if we find anything we can signal the other members of each group on the wrist communicators' right?" Daphne asked.

"Right Daphne, but first Larry I think you better hand out the wrist communicators so that we can put them on and test them" Fred replied.

"Good idea Fred; if you guys will hang on, I'll do just that" Larry replied.

So with that the dark brown haired leader of the Clue Club walked over to the Clue Car and retrieved a large brown box, which was filled with what looked to be watches; however upon closer inspection, each watch's dial also had a small television monitor which flipped over by pushing a button on the device's side.

Larry then walked back over to the other three groups of teenage mystery solvers and handed each person one of the wrist communicators; he then explained that because he, Pepper, D.D. and Dottie already had wrist communicators the members of the Clue Club were good to go.

First he walked over to the members of Mystery Inc. and handed Fred, Daphne, Velma and Shaggy each a communicator; next he walked over to Josie and handed her, Alan, Alexander, Alexandra, Melody and Valerie each a communicator as well; finally he walked over to Speed Buggy's friends and handed a communicator each to Mark, Debbie and Tinker, once Larry had finished his task, he asked each sleuth to put on each of their communicators, which they did; next Larry asked each sleuth to push a button on the side of the communicator to make sure each of the devices was working properly; after each teenage investigator tested their communicators, which thankfully all worked, everything was all set for each of the four groups to begin exploring the seemingly abandoned city.

"OK everybody, now that we know all of our communicators are working properly, we can get started, now here's what we'll do: Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, Scooby and I will start exploring the North side of the city in the Mystery Machine; Tinker, you, Debbie and Mark can take Speed Buggy and start searching the Southern part of the city; Josie and company, you guys take your bus and search the Western part of the city; while Larry and the Clue Club can take the Clue Car and begin searching the Eastern portion of the city; everybody okay with their assignments?" Fred explained before asking each group of teenage sleuths their respective opinions.

"Sounds good to us" Larry said as he conferred with the rest of the Clue Club.

"That sounds all right to us" Mark commented as he discussed things with his friends.

"Sounds pretty good to us too" Alan remarked as he spoke to Josie and company.

"And naturally this sounds okay to everyone here right gang?" Fred asked.

"Sure does" Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby replied in agreement.

"Okay, now that all four groups are in agreement, I think we better get started with our investigation" Fred noted.

"Right, let's get back into our respective vehicles and start searching this city like it's never been searched before" Alan replied.

"Yeah, with four groups of detectives this should be pretty easy" Mark added.

"Sure, and don't forget, this will probably be one of the toughest mysteries each of our groups has ever encountered or attempted to solve, which means we'll have to do the best detective work of our lives" Larry remarked.

"Okay everybody, let's get going and remember we each have one of Dottie's wrist communicators so if anybody sees or hears something peculiar or strange, contact the others" Fred explained.

"Right, come on gang" Larry declared.

With that Fred and the rest of the Mystery Inc. sleuths piled into the Mystery Machine and drove off towards the Northern part of the city; a few seconds later Larry and the Clue Club entered the Clue Car and drove off towards the East, then a few moments later Mark, Debbie and Tinker got back into Speed Buggy and started off towards the South, while finally a few moments later Josie and company piled into their tour bus and headed off towards the West.

As each group started their respective treks toward different portions of the city, each group of teenage sleuths realized that there was a definite possibility that maybe they wouldn't leave this middle American city alive; because at the moment, they were unaware that some of the villains, monsters, ghosts and creatures that each respective group had faced in the past were about to make a return; the only difference from the last time that each group had encountered each of the respective villains was that this time there were no people in costumes, each of the criminals that the respective teenage sleuths were going to face this time were quite real and quite threatening.

After driving a few minutes the brightly painted red and green van known as the Mystery Machine pulled up outside a large brown office building; the structure looked to be at least twenty stories high with a gray metal plaque on top of the entrance to the building.

Mystery Inc. realized that this might be a good place to start looking for clues so they exited the Mystery Machine and headed for the entrance; as Scooby and friends walked up to the door they noticed that the building looked to be quite old and was built with who knows how many bricks, which covered the building except for the doorway and a series of windows which looked to be on each level of the structure.

"Jinkies, this might just be one if the largest buildings I've ever seen" Velma said.

"Like yeah, I wonder what this building is?" Shaggy wondered.

"Well, according to the plaque above the door it says The Wayne Building" Fred replied.

"Do you guys think we'll find any answers as to why this whole city is deserted in here?" Daphne asked.

"We just might Daphne, we just might; but there's only one way to find out and that's to go inside" Fred replied.

"Like d-do you think it's safe?" Shaggy said nervously.

"Reah, rhere right re rhosts rinside" Scooby added.

"For once I might agree with the two of you" Velma said.

Fred, Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby were somewhat stunned at their auburn haired comrade's statement and decided to ask her why she had said something so unexpected, at least unexpected as far as Velma was concerned.

"Velma, I thought you didn't believe in ghosts?" Daphne asked.

"I don't" Velma replied.

"Like if that's true then how come you said that there might be ghosts inside that office building Velma?" the cowardly teen asked.

"Well, considering that we have no idea what is in this world and considering this is a parallel universe, there might indeed be ghosts, ghouls, spirits, specters, phantoms, poltergeists and who knows how many other supernatural or paranormal creatures or being among the buildings here" Velma said.

"Velma, if that's really the case I think I have an idea" Shaggy replied.

"What's that Shaggy?" the bespectacled girl asked.

"I think we should really keep a close eye on each other, you know just in case some ghost or villain tries to grab you; this way I can protect you and spend time with you, plus with me around there's no way anybody would try and lay a hand on you" the cowardly teen replied, although at the moment he sounded more brave then cowardly, which surprised Velma greatly.

"Shaggy, I-I don't think I've ever heard you talk like that, you never wanted to spend a lot of time with me before" Velma said with a somewhat surprised tone in her voice.

"Well, it's just that, well I like spending time with you and you've always been a really good friend to me and Scooby, actually I don't know what I would do without you or for that matter I don't know what any of us would do without you" Shaggy replied, with a look of embarrassment on his face considering he was revealing his feelings about the chestnut haired girl.

"Shaggy, I care a lot about you too; you and Scooby have been like brothers to me for so many years now, I just don't know what I would do if you and Scooby weren't around; actually, I have to admit that for a long time I've felt that even though you guys act like cowards when we have a mystery or when we try to capture a ghost or monster, deep down I actually thought and still think that you two are really brave and are heroes" Velma commented.

"You, you think Scooby and I are heroes and brave?" Shaggy asked.

"Mmm-hmm" Velma said, nodding her head in agreement.

"Wow, like this is so unexpected, I never knew you really felt this way Velma, actually there's something else I wanted to say to you, but I don't know how you're going to act or what you're going to say" Shaggy replied.

"Just go ahead and say what you need to say Shaggy, and whatever you tell me I'll understand" Velma said.

"Like okay; to tell you the truth ever since I met you when we were little, I've had a crush on you; actually ever since high school the crush has developed into, well the fact that I love you; now like I'll completely understand if you don't feel the same way about me that I do about you" Shaggy explained.

A few seconds later the cowardly green shirted teen noticed that Velma had pulled him towards her; the bespectacled teen then placed her arm around Shaggy's waist and began kissing him softly on the cheek, which surprised the entire gang, including Shaggy.

"Does that answer your question Shaggy?" Velma said sweetly as she looked into his brown eyes.

"Like it sure does, more eloquently than any words could ever describe it as a matter of fact" the cowardly teen replied.

"Shaggy, that's one of the sweetest and most interesting things you've ever said; I guess all the time we've spent together is really rubbing off on you" Velma said with a smile on her face.

"Rince rou rwo rissed, rare rou rwo roing to rate rand rbe royfriend and rirlfriend?" Scooby wondered.

"Well Scooby, like uh, like I don't know" Shaggy replied.

"Scooby, would you mind if Shaggy and I started dating or became boyfriend and girlfriend?" Velma asked as she softly petted the canine's fur.

"Ret re rhink rabout it" the Great Dane commented.

After a few minutes deep in thought the cowardly canine smiled and responded to Velma's question.

"Rof rourse, resides Rhaggy reeds a rirfriend" Scooby replied with a slight chuckle.

"Like thanks Scoob" Shaggy responded, not knowing quite what to make of his canine companion's comment, especially his chuckling.

"Rou're welcome Rhaggy, rand ri ron't rind rif rou rwo rate" Scooby commented.

"You sure Scooby? I mean I understand you and Shaggy are best friends and I don't know if you would want to share him" Velma replied.

"Rof rourse, rafter all Rhaggy's rated other rirls refore and ri ridn't rind rharing rhim rith rhem" Scooby commented.

"Yes but none of those other girls were members of Mystery Inc. and none of those other girls were your and Shaggy's best friends Scooby" the bespectacled girl replied.

"Ri know, rand ri rill ron't rind rharing rhim" the Great Dane remarked.

"Scooby, you're the most wonderful dog in the world, plus your not only man's best friend but girl's best friend too" Velma said after she walked over to the cowardly canine and kissed him on his cheek.

"Raw, rhucks" the Great Dane replied as his face began to turn the brightest shade of red possible.

"Well what do you know about that, it looks like old Scooby's blushing" Daphne said.

"Yeah it looks like he is" Fred added.

"You know Scooby, you might just indeed be the best dog in the world" Daphne commented.

"Raw, rome on rang, rknock it off, rou're raking re rlush again" the cowardly canine replied.

"Scooby's right gang; besides we've got to figure out a way to get inside this office building and look around for clues" Velma noted.

"Like good thinking Velma, except for one thing" Shaggy replied.

"What's that Shaggy?" the bespectacled teen asked.

"Like how are we going to be able to get inside this place? Besides, we don't know if the door's unlocked and we don't know if we'll even be able to get inside" the cowardly teen said.

"Don't worry Shaggy, I should be able to take care of it" Velma replied.

"But how?" Shaggy wondered.

"Simple and the only thing I'll need to get us inside is a small bobby pin" Velma answered.

"Like go ahead Velma" Shaggy commented.

With that the bespectacled girl reached up into her hair and pulled out a small pin; the intelligent sleuth then reached back down and placed the pin inside the key hole of the large glass door, a few moments later after moving the key around, the mechanism of the door caused it to unlock which allowed Velma to open the door quite easily; the bespectacled teen then entered the large office building, then a few moments after she entered Fred, Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby entered into the structure which allowed Mystery Inc. to begin investigating the strange building.

After walking inside the imposing brick structure Scooby and the rest of Mystery Inc. noticed that the bottom floor of the structure was composed of what looked to be a neatly decorated combination waiting room and foyer; as the gang looked around they could see various paintings hanging on the walls, a few chairs and tables scattered around as well as a few small sculptures which sat on a few of the small tables.

Normally an office building of this size would have a staff of hundreds even thousands of people working in various offices in addition to people standing at elevators or taking coffee breaks, but as the gang walked through the room, they noticed that none of the above events were taking place, in fact the building looked to be deserted or even haunted.

"Jeepers, this is really weird; my dad probably has been in or worked in an office building of this size before and I know that he's told me that there are usually hundreds of workers in a given place like this at a certain time, but for some reason I don't see anybody here; no workers, no cars in the parking lot other than the Mystery Machine, not even a janitorial worker" Daphne commented.

"Hmm, that is really strange; why wouldn't there be anyone here at this time of day, whatever it may be" Velma wondered.

"Like maybe they're all taking a vacation" Shaggy remarked.

"Reah, rike Ralm Springs" Scooby added.

"Why would everybody in the building be taking a vacation Shaggy?" Velma asked.

"Like maybe they're all tired and need a break" the cowardly teen answered.

"Hmm, it's possible but doubtful" Velma replied.

"Well there has to be something that would explain the disappearance of every single man, woman and child in this city" Daphne commented.

"You're right Daphne and maybe we'll find the answer somewhere inside this building, come on gang let's get searching" Fred declared.

So with that the gang walked across the room to a series of metal doors; there was a small white button that was labeled up and another small white button that was labeled down on the side of the doors which gave the bespectacled member of Mystery Inc. an idea.

"We might be able to use this elevator to transport ourselves to one of the higher floors of the building to look for clues" Velma said.

"Like I knew that" Shaggy replied.

"Well, what are we waiting for, Velma push the up button and we can get started" Fred remarked.

"Right" Velma replied.

The bespectacled intelligent female member of the group pressed the up button for the elevator, expecting it to start working, except for one small problem: the elevator didn't move an inch which left the gang for the moment stranded on the bottom floor of the building.

Not one for giving up Velma pushed the down button for the elevator hoping that somehow this would get the elevator working again; alas her efforts were wasted as the elevator failed yet again, so with no other options Velma tried pressing the up and down buttons at the same time, but even that didn't work, which left the gang perplexed on what to do next.

"Hmm, that's somewhat weird; why would an elevator in a large office building like this not be working properly" Velma wondered.

"I don't know, but it looks like we'll have to figure out another option for transportation" Fred replied.

"I hate to say it Freddie, but I think we might have to find the stairs and walk through the building" Daphne responded.

"I think you might be right Daphne, come on gang let's find a staircase" Fred replied.

The gang then resumed walking through the large well decorated waiting room/foyer until they reached the left side of the room, where there was a large winding staircase; the members of Mystery Inc. then began walking up said stairs until they reached the first floor, which consisted of a long hallway filled with several dozen doors.

Mystery Inc. opened pretty much every single door in the hallway and looked through every single room on the floor and didn't find a thing except for well kept offices with computers, a few televisions, various office furniture, file cabinets and water coolers; not wanting to give up on their search Scooby and friends walked up to the second floor, however they found the exact same thing there, well kept offices with no people inside, after that they searched the third floor, which held the same story as the first two floors, mainly no clues as to the disappearance of every citizen in the city; with no other options Mystery Inc. decided to rest for a few seconds in one of the many offices on the third floor.

The gang walked through the third floor hallway before reaching a door marked 313; strangely enough this door like each of the other offices was unlocked, although the fact that the front door of the building was locked made the gang quite suspicious, although they were too exhausted from searching to care at the moment; once inside office number 313 Fred and Daphne found a large couch to sit on, while Shaggy and Velma each found office chairs, coincidentally right next to each other while Scooby found a place to rest of the office carpet.

After a few moments of discussing the events of their most recent case and how nice it was to see their other mystery solving friends again, the five members of Mystery Inc. decided that it would probably be a good idea to see if they could get take a cat nap and maybe after they were finished they would be relaxed enough to resume their investigation; so with that Fred and Daphne snuggled up together on the couch, which the rest of the gang didn't mind, especially because Shaggy and Velma were attempting to move their chairs closer to one another in an attempt to snuggle up with each other as well, which didn't work as well as Fred and Daphne's attempt but the two didn't seem to mind; meanwhile Scooby Doo smiled at his four friends and thought of how happy they each looked before settling down for his own nap on the dark brown office carpet.

As the five members of Mystery Inc. headed off to dreamland each of them were unaware that a sinister presence was lurking in the building and was about to make his presence known very soon to the four teenage sleuths and their Great Dane.

While they slept Fred and Daphne both dreamt that they were a prince and princess and that they were dancing together in some fairly tale castle; the pretty redhead imagined herself wearing a beautiful full length purple ball gown while the blond teenager imagined himself wearing a dark blue outfit like that of a heroic captain in the military trimmed in white, while he naturally wore his orange ascot his neck, but in the dream both of them didn't seem to care what the other was wearing, although unknown to the in their dream castle there was a strange shadow watching them, waiting to make his move.

Meanwhile Shaggy and Velma both dreamt that the cowardly teen was attempting to rescue the intelligent bespectacled sleuth from a horrible monster, or a dangerous villain or some other horrible fate; the light brown haired teen imagined himself wearing a dark green outfit that reminded him a lot of the Beast's outfit after he turned human from the movie and fairy tale _Beauty and the Beast_, while the bespectacled female sleuth imagined herself wearing a gorgeous full length orange gown, similar to what Belle wore in the movie version of the fairy tale; in the dream after Shaggy had rescued Velma the two sleuths danced for what seemed like hours on a glittering dance floor which looked to be made of diamonds and gold dust, while Fred, Daphne and Scooby looked on, each of them smiling from ear to ear while a safe distance away stood a shadowy cloaked figure looking for his moment to rush in and capture Velma.

Unlike Fred and Shaggy, Scooby Doo didn't have a steady girlfriend or a permanent girlfriend for that matter, but he figured why let his human friends have all the fun, so the Great Dane dreamt that the Golden Retriever/alien that he was attracted to during the gang's Southwest adventure some time ago named Amber was back in her talking canine form and was telling Scooby something as they walked along a moonlit beach somewhere in Southern California.

"Scooby?" the dream Amber said.

"Res Ramber" dream Scooby replied.

"I've decided something" dream Amber commented.

"Rhat's that?" dream Scooby asked as he held the Golden Retriever in his arms.

"I love you; I mean I know Crystal and Shaggy had something special but I don't care, I don't ever want to go back to my planet, I want to stay here with you, I want to solve mysteries with you and the rest of your friends and well, I want to be your girlfriend and maybe some day your wife" dream Amber replied.

"Ractually Rhaggy's rin rove rith Relma row" dream Scooby said.

"He is?" dream Amber wondered, somewhat surprised that even in a dream Scooby would say something like this.

"Ruh-huh, rhey roth rare about reach rother rand rit's all right rith re, ri don't rind rhem reing rogether" dream Scooby replied.

"Oh Scooby, you don't know what this means to me; I was just worried that if you and I were together that Shaggy would be left out and that you would hate me" dream Amber said.

"Rot at all, reverybody ras rheir rown rove rife and Rhaggy and ri reach rave our own ro re rave to rind the rerfect rirl ror reach of us; ry the way to ranswer rour ruestion ri rould re ronored rif rou rere ry rirlfriend rand raybe rife romeday" dream Scooby answered.

"Scooby, you're so wonderful!" dream Amber exclaimed as she and the Great Dane each began kissing the other on the cheek and hugging, while of course Fred, Daphne, Velma and Shaggy watched, quite happy that their canine had found true love; but all was not well because at the moment, a pair of sinister white figures were watching the six through a pair of binoculars and was about to interrupt the gang's romantic dreams as well as their real lives.

Author's Notes: Hopefully I didn't overdo it with the romance in this chapter: I've really enjoyed writing the Shelma and Fraphne pairings since I started writing Fan Fiction and I think I've done a really good job in capturing the romantic moments for each couple here; plus I added a romantic dream for Scooby Doo as well, hopefully everybody likes that, also I decided to end this chapter with a cliff hanger so to speak, hopefully everybody enjoys that as well.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

It had been about a day and a half since Scooby Doo and the members of Mystery Inc., the members of the Clue Club, the talking dune buggy known as Speed Buggy and his friends, and the members of the singing group Josie and the Pussycats as well as their cat Sebastian had figuratively ran into one another on a Kansas highway; after deciding to all team up for a while, the four groups of adolescent investigators drove their respective vehicles through the Sunflower State before arriving in the city of Topeka; however, there was one small problem as the four groups of teens began exploring the city, that being there were no other vehicles besides the ones belonging to the teen detectives on the streets and that there was not a single citizen of the city on the streets or in any of the buildings.

So the four groups of teenagers decided to do what they did best: team up to investigate and attempt to solve the strange occurrence that was happening inside the metropolitan middle American city; after deciding on a plan of action, the four groups of sleuths went their separate ways, each taking a different portion of the city to investigate and look for clues.

Outside the Wayne Office Building in downtown Topeka, the sky was still somewhat gray and foggy; basically there was no rain, no snow, no sun or any other normal weather pattern for that matter, which was something that would perplex any meteorologist or weatherman; this peculiar weather occurrence would also be quite baffling to the youngest and most intelligent member of Mystery Inc.: Velma Dinkley, but at the moment she and the rest of her fellow sleuths were taking a break form detective work as they rested inside a 3rd floor office.

The bespectacled teenage sleuth and her cowardly companion Shaggy were sitting in office chairs, while Fred and Daphne had laid down on a large brown couch in the corner of the office; the group's cowardly canine meanwhile was fast asleep on the office carpet, however the group of five sleuths wouldn't be asleep for long as both inside their dreams and in the real world, one of the foes from their past would come back to haunt them.

Inside of Fred and Daphne's dreams the red haired beauty and her blond companion were continuing to glide across the dance floor with ease as the two of them were clearly enjoying their time together and their time inside the castle; meanwhile the strange shadow that had been observing them from behind a nearby white column was ready to pounce on the couple.

Suddenly out of the corner of his eye the blond teen saw the shadow as he began to run towards the couple; however as the shadow rushed towards the two sleuths, his shape became much clearer as the redhead and blond gasped at the figure that now stood before them.

The strange shadowy figure was actually a strange man dressed in a black hat, dark green jacket and black shoes; in addition to that the figure also had a ghastly green face, like something out of an old horror movie; Fred and Daphne could do nothing but stand front of the creature, stunned and shocked at his horrible appearance, all the while the two sleuths were thinking like they had seen the creature, but from where? Finally something clicked in the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc.'s brain, while at the same time something clicked in the red haired teen's brain as well as both of them instantly recognized the creature.

"The Ghost of Hyde!" Fred and Daphne exclaimed in unison.

Somehow someway one of the villains the gang had captured was inside the castle that Fred and Daphne were currently inside, or at least the one in their dream; however the two of them knew that this wasn't possible, because the actual Ghost of Hyde was Dr. Jekyll who had been caught by Mystery Inc. and was sent to prison many years ago after the gang uncovered that he had been behind a series of jewelry store robberies, but at the moment he looked quite real and quite menacing.

"T-this is impossible; t-the real Ghost of Hyde's in jail, we put him there!" Daphne remarked.

"Yeah, so there's no way this guy is really the Ghost of Hyde, unless" Fred replied.

"Unless what?" Daphne said, with a significant amount of terror in her voice.

"Unless this Ghost of Hyde is the real deal" Fred replied.

"But there's no such things as ghosts right?" Daphne questioned.

"Right, so this guy has to be wearing a mask too" Fred replied.

"That's right, so let's unmask him" Daphne said.

"Good thinking Daphne, come on!" Fred declared as he and his red haired companion advanced on the ghastly green creature; however, this Mr. Hyde was planning on this as he began to slowly advance towards Fred and Daphne.

"Oh great now what do we do Freddie?" Daphne asked.

"Simple, this!" Fred replied, pulling out a sharp sword from the belt of his outfit, which even in a dream it was lucky that he was wearing it; the blond teenager then pointed the instrument at the Ghost of Hyde and did what any heroic man would do in the same situation.

"All right Hyde, I don't know what you're doing here but I warn you, you'll never capture us!" Fred replied with a look of determination.

The strange green creature was ready for this and continued to advance on Fred and Daphne; finally the ghost stopped and took a swipe at Fred, normally of course the blond teen would have shiskabobed the fiendish phantom but unfortunately for him Mr. Hyde had managed to knock the sword away from the blond teen and across the room.

Without anything to defend himself from the creature Fred did what any red blooded American male teenager would do: he attempted to protect his girlfriend, in this case he told the red haired teenager to get behind him while he attempted to hold off the sinister ghost of Hyde; the blond teenager's plan was working, albeit for only a few seconds before the green faced phantom figured out what was going on and attempted to make his move.

The nightmarish figure then grabbed Fred's arm and tossed him across the room, but thankfully the blond unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. managed to get through his experience somewhat unharmed which made him quite happy; unfortunately for him though after he slid across the castle floor, he noticed that Daphne was no longer standing next to him, instead the Ghost of Hyde had captured the red haired teen and was running out of the room while Fred was in hot pursuit of the fiendish phantom.

"Freddie, help!" Daphne yelled as she and the Ghost of Hyde disappeared out of sight; the blond haired teen continued desperately to chase the sinister specter, unfortunately he was unable to track him down, which left the blond haired teen disappointed, he had failed to save his princess and was now being taunted by the fiendish villain as evil laughter filled the castle.

Meanwhile inside of Shaggy and Velma's dreams the somewhat unlikely couple continued to dance across the glittering diamond and gold dust covered floor still unaware that the shadowy cloaked figure that had been watching them was now getting ready to strike; as the cowardly teen and his bespectacled companion continued to have fun, they were about to have a sinister visitor.

Suddenly the strange cloaked figure ran from his hiding place to right in front of Shaggy and Velma; the fiendish creature growled as the pair of sleuths looked on in terror at the villain; however all was not lost, because once the cowardly teen and his bespectacled companion got a good look at the creature they realized just what and who they were dealing with.

The strange creature had what looked like purple hair, was wearing a dark green jacket, dark green pants as well as black shoes and had a ghastly green face and what looked to be the appearance of a hunchback; just like Fred and Daphne's dreams, Velma and Shaggy knew they had seen this creature before, but from where? It had been years since they first had encountered this creature and a few years since they had encountered him again when the gang met their cyber doubles, but to Shaggy and Velma even if they hadn't seen him in a while, they realized just who this creature was.

"The Creeper!" Velma shrieked.

"Zoinks!" Shaggy replied.

Both teenage detectives knew that this must be some optical illusion or some person playing a trick on them, because they both knew that the Creeper, or at least the person behind the original mask of the villain, a man named Mr. Carswell, who was a bank president was either behind bars or at the very worst deceased. Many years ago on the way to a barn dance for their High School, Scooby and company first met the Creeper; eventually the gang unmasked the creature as the aforementioned Mr. Carswell, who had used his disguise to rob the bank that he was the president of; in addition before he left the back every day he filled his briefcase with money, but was captured by an infrared camera which a bank guard had placed in the building.

During the mystery Scooby and company had encountered the bank guard who handed them a picture of Carswell robbing the bank; however, said picture could only be developed by holding a flame in front of it and eventually Carswell figured that fact out, so he went after the guard and Mystery Inc. to attempt to retrieve the picture, but was eventually caught by the group of teenage sleuths and sent to prison, but at the moment the Creeper was quite real and was slowly approaching Shaggy and Velma.

"L-like I thought the Creeper was still in jail?" Shaggy asked.

"And I thought the last time we encountered him was the last time we would ever see him, considering the creator of the Phantom Virus is in prison" Velma replied.

"But Velma, didn't Eric create all the villains that we saw?" Shaggy wondered.

"Well, sort of, but all those villains were part of the game, I mean I guess so; oh I don't know, I'm just confused" Velma replied while holding her head.

"Like we're going to be more than confused if that creep catching us" Shaggy said, with a significant amount of terror in his voice.

"You know I thought the same thing, so I guess there's only one thing to do" Velma replied.

"What's that?" Shaggy asked.

"Run for it!" Velma shrieked.

So the bespectacled sleuth took her cowardly companion by the hand as they both attempted to run out of the room, but the Creeper was too fast for them as he quickly ran over to where the two detectives were, thereby cutting off any chance of escape that the pair of investigators might have had left.

"Oh Jinkies, what are we going to do now?" Velma wondered.

"Like I don't know Velma, I don't know" Shaggy replied.

The strange hunchbacked creature continued advancing on the pair of sleuths, wondering just what the fiendish phantom had planned for the two of them; finally after a few minutes something clicked in the cowardly teen's brain and he came up with a sure fire plan to at least make sure the creature wouldn't cause at least one of the detectives harm.

"Velma, like get behind me, I'm going to try and hold the Creeper off" Shaggy explained.

"Are you crazy? He's not a man in a mask or costume, you can't hold him off!" Velma replied, somewhat shocked at what her companion had just said.

"I know it seems a little weird, but it's the only chance we've got and besides I'm not going to let anyone, not even some creepy hunchback lay a finger on you" Shaggy remarked, albeit somewhat bravely, which surprised Velma to no end.

"Okay Shaggy, but just do me one favor" the bespectacled teen said.

"What's that?" Shaggy wondered.

"Just be careful" Velma replied, while holding Shaggy tightly to her.

"Don't worry I will" the cowardly teen remarked with a smile.

With that Velma moved behind her cowardly companion and hoped that he could hold off the Creeper without the villainous phantom hurting or harming her; however, this plan didn't seem to work at first as the Creeper continued to advance on the pair of sleuths; finally the cowardly teen had seen enough and amazingly charged headlong towards the creature.

Unfortunately for Shaggy the hunchbacked creature anticipated what the cowardly teen was attempting to do and quickly stepped aside, which caused Shaggy to go running headlong towards the other side of the room; after a few seconds, the cowardly teen bumped into a stone column, which caused Velma a bit of distress.

"Shaggy!" the bespectacled sleuth shrieked.

"Like its okay Velma, I'm just a little bruised" the cowardly teen yelled back.

Shaggy managed to stand up and brush himself off, making sure there weren't any broken bones as a result of his collision with the stone column; however, just as soon as he had stood up he noticed a particularly frightening sight on the other side of the room.

In this case, the sight was the Creeper picking up Velma and carrying her out of sight, but of course Velma didn't go without a fight because the feisty auburn haired young woman kicked and screamed as the creature carried her off while Shaggy watched in shock.

"Let me go, you creep, let me go!" Velma yelled as she tried to break the creature's grip on her.

"Velma!" Shaggy yelled as he ran towards the Creeper in hot pursuit.

"Shaggy, help me!" the bespectacled teen replied, hoping that the cowardly teen would hear her.

"Don't worry Velma; I'm coming to save you!" Shaggy yelled.

Unfortunately for the cowardly teen, the hunchbacked creature had managed to abscond with the intelligent female sleuth before he could do anything to save Velma; acting on his instincts, the somewhat cowardly teen sleuth chased after the Creeper and the bespectacled teen, but alas it was to no avail as the fiendish phantom escaped and with Shaggy's female companion in his clutches; the cowardly teen then dropped to his knees wondering just what he could do to rescue Velma from the grasp of the Creeper, if anything that is.

Meanwhile inside Scooby's dream, the Great Dane and his female canine companion were continuing to stroll along the sandy California beach arm in arm; naturally because there was a full moon, it was the perfect night for a romantic walk, which made Scooby and Amber smile as the moonlight shined onto the pair of dogs fur; the light of the full moon also made the Great Dane's brown fur shimmer, in addition to making the Golden Retriever's blonde fur shimmer and sparkle as the pair of canines clearly were happy about the time they were spending together, even though it was a dream and Amber was at the moment millions of miles away in another galaxy, but to the cowardly Great Dane Scooby Doo, it really didn't matter.

"Oh Scooby, I wish this night would never end, don't you?" dream Amber asked as she draped her arms around the Great Dane.

"Ri sure ro, rut rhy roes it rhave to rend?" Scooby replied with a question of his own, clearly enjoying having the Golden Retriever's arms and paws around him.

"Scooby, you know as much as I do that this is a dream, eventually it will be over and we'll each have to get back to our own lives: you, with Shaggy and the rest of Mystery Inc, solving mysteries and chasing ghosts and I'll have to go back to patrolling the galaxy with Crystal in search of crime in outer space, not to mention our government work" dream Amber answered; the moment she finished speaking though, she put her arms around the Great Dane's waist and pulled the cowardly canine towards her.

"Ramber, rave I ever rold you rhat I rove rou?" dream Scooby replied, clearly enjoying the fact that the two were hugging and possibly about ready to kiss.

"Only about a hundred times tonight, and I wouldn't have it any other way" dream Amber said dreamily as she and Scooby engaged in a series of kisses that seemed to last an eternity; however while the pair of canines were busy expressing their true feelings for each other, the perpetually hungry and perpetually cowardly Great Dane began to get a strange feeling, almost as if he knew that someone was watching the pair; finally something clicked inside the Great Dane's mind and he pulled away from Amber for a few seconds, which clearly confused the Golden Retriever as she asked her companion what he was doing.

"Scooby, what's the matter, what's going on?" dream Amber asked with a concerned look on her face.

"Ri ron't know, rhat ri rhink romeone is ratching us" dream Scooby replied.

Sensing that he and his temporary girlfriend might be in danger, not to mention acting purely on his canine and detective instincts he pulled the Golden Retriever close to him; although once he realized the pair might be in serious jeopardy he told Amber to stand behind him.

She of course complied with Scooby's request but was still a little confused as to why the Great Dane was behaving the way he was at the present time; the female canine however in the short time that she knew Scooby from their adventure in the Southwest and the time spent in their dreams together that if he knew or sensed there was danger, it was smart not to question him in his decision making.

"Scooby, I don't understand, what's going on?" dream Amber asked once again.

However she wouldn't have long to wait for an answer because a few seconds after she spoke to Scooby, both she and the Great Dane began to hear a strange noise; being a canine Scooby's sense of hearing was someone better than the other members of Mystery Inc., which was good news because he was able to hear and recognize the noise, whereas a human sleuth might not be able to hear the noise until it was too late.

At first the noise sounded like pounding footsteps, although Scooby didn't think so, at least at first; after all why would there be anyone else on a Southern California beach at this time of night, not to mention that this was his dream, so there wouldn't be anyone here to disturb the canine couple, at the very least there might be a few other couples taking moonlight walks, or even single men and women getting some late night exercise; but of course Scooby quickly dismissed this as well.

The cowardly Great Dane was perplexed as to just what this noise was that he was hearing, that is until he saw a pair of white shadowy figures out of the corner of his eye standing above the beach, each watching the pair through binoculars; knowing that something was about to happen to he and his female canine companion Scooby turned to the rest of the gang who were standing nearby and watching them, or at least they were standing close by.

When Scooby Doo turned to see if his friends were still there, he discovered that the four teenage sleuths had vanished without a trace; now the Great Dane was starting to act like he usually was, that is to say cowardly and somewhat nervous as he called for his friends or for someone to help he and Amber out; but alas it was to no avail because a few moments later the two shadowy figures ran, or rather floated down to the beach and were now standing a few feet in front of Scooby and Amber.

"Sc-Scooby, wh-who are they?" dream Amber asked nervously as she held put her hands on the Great Dane's shoulders both for protection and because she was genuinely frightened.

As the two shadowy figures stepped into the moonlight, Scooby and his girlfriend saw just what they looked like which caused both of them to shiver, not because of the weather but because they were quite afraid of the pair of villains and what they could to the two canines, not to mention what they had done or attempted to do to Scooby and company in the past.

The two figures were actually two very familiar looking green ghosts; the two specters had piercing green and orange eyes in addition to chains attached to their ghostly arms, and as they stepped closer to the two canines demonstrated their memorable(at least to Scooby) and very ghostly laughs.

"Roh-no, rit ran't re!" Scooby exclaimed in terror.

"Who can't it be Scooby?" dream Amber asked.

"Rhe rhantom rhadows" the Great Dane replied with a gulp.

"Phantom Shadows?" dream Amber questioned.

"Res, rhey rere a rouple or rillains from rour rast" Scooby replied.

The Great Dane was indeed correct, the Phantom Shadows were from the gang's past; specifically an adventure in which Scooby and several relatives of a deceased man named Colonel Beauregard Sanders were invited to the colonel's estate on a frightening and haunted island to attempt to spend the night there in order to collect a $1 Million inheritance from the late colonel.

But of course spending the night wasn't so simple, because as the gang would find out the mansion was the haunting grounds of a pair of ghosts called the Phantom Shadows, which as it turned out were really Creeps and Crawls, the late colonel's attorneys who attempted to scare all the heirs off the island so that the two of them would keep control of the man's fortune which as it turned out was worthless anyway, specifically speaking the fortune turned out to be all in Confederate money which might have been useful, if it was the Civil War and you happened to be in the Southern part of the country, but during the time that Scooby and the gang visited the mansion, the money was nothing more than old pieces of green paper.

"S-Scooby?" dream Amber asked, as she trembled a little while she spoke.

"R-res Ramber" the Great Dane replied, also trembling a little as he spoke.

"Wh-what do these two ghosts want?" dream Amber wondered.

"Revenge robably, the rang and I rut them in rison, so now they want to destroy rus or rurn us rinto rhosts" Scooby explained.

"Oh no! Scooby, you won't let them do that will you? You can't let them do it, I don't want to be a ghost" dream Amber replied as tears began streaming from her eyes; the usually cowardly Great Dane put his hands on the golden retriever's shoulders and hugged her for a few moments before gently wiping away Amber's tears with one of his paws.

"Ramber, rof rourse ri ron't ret them rurn rou into rhosts, ractually ri ron't rhink re're really rhosts at all" Scooby remarked.

"You don't?" dream Amber asked, somewhat surprised at the Great Dane's comment.

"Rof rourse not, rin real rife rhese rwo rere reople in rostumes, ro raybe rhey're reople in rostumes rere" Scooby commented.

"But Scooby, they seem as real as the two of us are" dream Amber replied.

"Res, rut rhis is a dream, ro raybe rit's at least rossible rhat they might be fake ghosts" Scooby remarked.

As soon as the Great Dane finished speaking, he began walking towards the two ghastly green ghosts, which made Amber a bit frightened; after all, there was a possibility that her boyfriend may not survive this encounter with the two phantom shadows, so she did what any girl or woman would do when her boyfriend was about to possibly go into something dangerous, she quickly ran over to the Great Dane and attempted to try and talk some sense into Scooby, plus she wished that he wouldn't attempt to unmask the ghosts, because after all there was a possibility that they might be dangerous.

"Scooby, please I beg of you to reconsider this; for me, please don't try and capture them" dream Amber said as she held the Great Dane's right arm and tried to pull him back towards her.

"Ronsense Ramber, ri'll re fine; resides, rhese rwo are phony ras a rhree roller rill" Scooby commented, somewhat sure that he would be able to pull this off.

So with that the temporarily brave Great Dane began walking towards the two phantoms, the two villains continued to laugh sinisterly as the canine's female companion looked on, somehow hoping that Scooby would end the two ghosts reign of terror; the canine now stood right in front of one of the two phantoms and attempted to pull off his mask, however there was one slight problem with that: as the Great Dane reached for the phantom's face, it went right through it, which meant one thing.

"Ripes, re's real!" Scooby said with a yelp as he suddenly retreated to Amber's side.

"Oh no, I knew it! Scooby, what are we going to do now?" the golden retriever asked with a nervous tone in her voice.

"Ri ron'r rknow, ri just ron't know" the Great Dane replied as he whimpered a little.

The pair of phantoms now advanced once again on the duo, looking to do them in or do them major harm; but luckily for Amber, Scooby was right next to her and held her arm while the two of them waited nervously for what the two green ghosts were going to do to them, not to mention looking frightened at the possibility of real ghosts.

Suddenly, just like Fred and Shaggy, Scooby knew that his girlfriend(or at least his temporary one) was in danger so he told the Golden Retriever to retreat behind him once again; the female canine gladly obliged and she next decided to ask the Great Dane just what he was planning.

"Scooby, what's going on, what are you doing?" dream Amber wondered.

"Ri'm roing to try and rold them off, ri'm not roing to ret them hurt rou" Scooby replied.

"Scooby, you can't hold them off, you're just a dog, you don't have alien powers like me, why don't you let me try and hold them off" dream Amber explained.

The Great Dane was just about to answer, except for one thing: the pair of canines temporarily forgot that there were two Phantom Shadows, so they did what Scooby and Amber were hoping they wouldn't do: one of them stood in front of the brown Great Dane and one of them stood in front of the Golden Retriever, laughing evilly all the while.

"Oh Jeepers, they've got us cornered, we're trapped Scooby!" dream Amber shrieked.

"Ri rhoped it rouldn't rome to this; Ramber, ro know rever rince ri ret rou ri've ralways roved rou" Scooby replied.

"I know you do Scooby, and ever since I met you I've loved you as well; and if we don't get out of this, I'm just glad that we were able to spend our final hours together" dream Amber commented with a frightened tone in her voice.

"Ri know Amber, ri know; ri'm rhappy ri rot to spend my last hours with you as well" Scooby replied with a frightened tone in his voice.

Suddenly, one of the phantom shadows did something that neither of the two canines were expecting: he picked up Scooby Doo, which made the Great Dane quite nervous, considering that he was only a green ghost and that he wouldn't be that strong, and flung him several dozen feet onto the sandy beach, which as you might expect made Amber quite upset, even though it was a dream.

"Scooby!" dream Amber shrieked as she saw the Great Dane landing on the beach.

"It's okay Amber, ri've rust rot a rittle rand in my routh, yuck!" Scooby replied as he spitted some sand out of his mouth.

Taking advantage of Scooby being unable to fight back, one of the Phantom Shadows then picked Amber up and began running or floating away with her, which made Scooby quite upset.

"Ramber!" Scooby yelled.

"Scooby help! Help me!" dream Amber replied as she tried to escape the clutches of the Phantom Shadows; while the ghastly green ghosts began carrying the beautiful Golden Retriever away, the canine did all she could to break out of the grasp of the villains, but alas even with her kicking, screaming, barking and yelping, the phantoms were relentless and they continued to hold the retriever in their clutches.

Meanwhile after brushing himself off and spitting the remainder of the sand from his mouth, Scooby acting on instinct immediately took off down the beach after the phantom shadows; the canine chased the two ghastly green ghosts through what seemed like thousands of feet of beach front, but alas it was to no avail as the both of the Phantom Shadows escaped; not only that but they had captured Scooby's temporary girlfriend, which made the Great Dane incensed, upset and depressed; he had done all he could to save Amber, but he had failed, and as if that wasn't bad enough as he cursed the names of the phantom shadows, meanwhile he could still hear the ghostly voices of the villains, almost taunting and teasing him because they had taken the female canine he loved away, possibly forever.

The gang's romantic dreams had now turned into nightmares, considering that villains from the gang's past had kidnapped Daphne, Velma and Amber; finally the gang realized that something was indeed wrong in Kansas and the three male sleuths woke up, but the question was would Daphne and Velma wake up? A few seconds later, Fred and Shaggy got their answers as the bespectacled teen sleuth and then the red haired teen both slowly opened their eyes and stretched out, which made the three male members of Mystery Inc. quite relieved.

"Daphne!" Fred exclaimed happily as he hugged the red haired teenager with all his might.

"Velma!" Shaggy exclaimed happily as he likewise hugged the bespectacled teen with all his might.

"Rhew, rhat a reird dream, ri'm rlad rou ruys are up" Scooby remarked as he stretched out on the office carpet.

"Yeah, you said it Scooby" Shaggy replied.

"I don't understand, what happened?" Daphne asked.

"Yeah, you two look like you've seen a couple of ghosts or something" Velma replied.

"You mean you don't know?" Fred remarked.

"Like yeah, you mean you don't remember anything?" Shaggy questioned.

"No, we don't" Daphne commented.

"Daphne, you're not going to believe this but here goes: I dreamt that you and I were a prince and princess in a fairy tale castle or something, and I was wearing a military type uniform and you were wearing a beautiful dress and that were dancing together" Fred explained.

"That sounds beautiful Freddie, what else?" Daphne asked with a romantic look in her eyes.

"Well it would have been beautiful, if it wasn't for the fact that the Ghost of Mr. Hyde rushed in and kidnapped you" Fred replied.

"Jeepers! What happened after that?" the red head wondered.

"Simple, I chased after the ghost and tried to capture him, but he was too strong for me and he captured you, so I ran after him, but he escaped" Fred continued.

"My goodness, that sounds horrible, I'm just glad it was just a dream" Daphne replied.

"Shaggy, what about you, did you have a weird dream like Fred?" Velma asked.

"Sure did and you might not believe this but here goes: Velma, you and I were also a prince and princess or something like that and you were dressed in a gorgeous orange gown, while I was dressed in a military uniform or something like that" Shaggy replied.

"Jinkies, that sounds pretty groovy, what else Shaggy?" Velma wondered with a romantic look on her face as well.

"Well, we were dancing together on a glittering and gold dust decorated floor and it was really romantic; or at least it would have been until the Creeper ran towards us and kidnapped you" Shaggy explained.

"Oh no, what happened after that?" Velma wondered.

"Simple, I ran after him and tried to save you, but he was too strong for me and threw me towards another side of the room that we were in; unfortunately though, he escaped with you" Shaggy replied.

"Jinkies, just like Daphne and Fred, but at least it was only a dream like theirs" Velma commented.

"Yeah like that's a good thing, although it sure seemed real" Shaggy replied.

"OK, let's examine what we know so far: Daphne and I had a romantic dream and she was kidnapped by the Ghost of Hyde, Velma and Shaggy had a romantic dream and the Creeper kidnapped Velma" Fred explained.

"Hey, we forgot about Scooby" the cowardly teen replied.

"Yeah that's right, what about you Scooby?" Daphne wondered.

"Like Scooby probably was dreaming about food or bones or something like that" Shaggy remarked with a chuckle.

"Ractually" the Great Dane replied as he smiled and looked at the rest of the gang.

"Wait, Scooby you mean you were dreaming about something other than food?" Daphne asked.

"Like what Scoob?" Shaggy wondered.

"Rell, ractually ri ras dreaming about romance" the Great Dane replied with a smile.

"Romance? With who Scooby?" Velma wondered.

"Like I bet I know, it was Amber right?" Shaggy asked.

"Rhow rid rou rigure rhat out? Scooby replied.

"Trust me old buddy, with that look on your face, I took a guess and it was pretty good if I may say so myself, so what was your dream like?" Shaggy wondered.

"Reah it ras a rood ruess; rell, Ramber and I were ralking along a roonlit reach in California and she was my rirlfriend; re rere rhaving a great time just ralking and renjoying reach other's rompany, rell at least re rere until the Rhantom Rhadows rowed up and rcared us" Scooby replied.

"Jinkies, what happened next?" Velma asked.

"Rhe rhantom rhadows rattacked us and rognapped Ramber; ri tried to rhase rafter them rand ret her back rut they were too fast ror re and they escaped" Scooby replied.

"Jeepers, that's horrible Scooby, thank goodness it was just a dream though like mine and Velma's dreams" Daphne commented.

"Hmm, something tells me that all this is connected somehow with the fact that every citizen in this city has vanished" Velma replied.

"It's certainly possible" Daphne remarked.

"Right and not to mention that the four vehicles of our four mystery solving groups are the only ones on the streets, there must be something in that as well" Fred wondered.

After going over the clues they had collected so far during their current mystery, Scooby and company sat back in their respective places in the small office that they were currently taking a break to try and decipher a solution to the case, or at least one that made any sense to any of the gang, but considering they usually dealt with the supernatural it wasn't going to be easy for them.

The five members of Mystery Inc.'s discussion of their current adventure was cut short however, because after a few minutes the teen sleuths and their Great Dane began to hear what sounded like strange noises coming from outside of the door, specifically in the 3rd floor of the office building.

"Jinkies, does anyone hear that?" Velma asked the rest of the gang as the noises continued.

"L-like I wish I didn't, but I do" Shaggy replied.

"Reah, re roo" Scooby added.

"Yeah so do I, it sounds almost like some kind of banging noise" Fred said as he spoke further to try and figure out what was going on.

"Jeepers, I hear it too Freddie, and it sounds like it's getting louder and louder" Daphne replied.

Scooby and the rest of Mystery Inc. continued to sit in the office waiting, wondering for whatever was going to happen to them to happen, although considering what had happened so far they probably wished they didn't have to find out; the group of teen sleuths and their Great Dane continued waiting as the noises from outside the door in the hallway got louder and louder, almost to an ear deafening level as inside each of the group's minds, the teen and canine detectives only thoughts were who or what was making those noises and if they were friendly, but one thing was for sure, they were about to find out.

Author's Notes: I decided to include some more Fraphne and Shelma, plus I added a little romance for Scooby as well; I also decided to end another chapter with a cliff-hangar(aren't I a rascal?), but believe me more surprises are in store for Mystery Inc. in future chapters.


End file.
